First Silmarillion Elf Model

Here is a test paint job for the forces of Doriath that I converted and prepared about two years ago originally for Dragon Rampant. Lost mojo and real life kinda got in the way, but I figured now was the time to have a go at splashing some colour on them...

I've tried to go for a 'book-accurate' look rather than the look from the Peter Jackson movies. Nothing wrong with the latter (I actually really like the look, but it's a million miles away from the Dark Ages feel that Tolkien intended.)

This is a Victrix Anglo-Dane Huscarl. The head is the bottom part of a Victrix Repubican Roman Montefortino helmet with the top being one of the 'headless' nasal helms from the Huscarl box set. The crest and the Elf's hair have been created with Green-stuff. The stars on the shield are WW2 US Army decals.

I chose to paint this model in layers over a black undercoat - first time in years I've tried that. To be fair, I'm nothing like the painter I was when I used to use this technique all the time, but it's worked out ok and I'll stick with it for this army.

This Elf is one of Thingol's bodyguards - the gold-embroidered grey tunic, blue-grey cloak and gold-decorated weapons and white-crested helmet indicate his status. Lesser warriors will sport no gold helmets or weapons and will have different coloured tunic trim.

I'm happy with the colour scheme. I've gone for greys and greyish blues and greens as the main colour theme as grey is mentioned a lot in the books and I guess would do for most Elf houses (as Doriath didn't really do a lot in battle in the Silmarillion). I dunno if stars are appropriate for the shields (I'm sure there are stars on Thingol's heraldic symbol so I guess it's ok -I'm not that much of a stickler for full 'accuracy' anyway).

I hope you like him and hopefully I'll keep up some progress - As you know, I'm painting these in between doing units for a Wars of the Roses army for a summer campaign at the club, so progress won't be speedy.

Dragon Rampant Warband - The Knights of the Celestial Tower Kitbash Part 2

Here are the rest of the units:

The Grand Mistress of the Celestial Tower. This is the Dominion boxset Yndrasta straight out of the box. What a killer model! She is accompanied by two Seraphim Paladin bodyguards. These are Prosecutor models with spears and shields from the Vindictors. You can get spear and shield armed Prosecutors but I fell foul of an EBAY deal where the 'on sprue' thing only meant the hammer-armed models not the entire sprue! Sigh... Anyway, I kept the original helmets on these and will paint the face plate as flesh, as I figured flyers would need a good field of vision on their helmets!! Reduced Model Unit of Elite Foot with Flyer. 

The Paladin Banner Guard. These are the Knight Vexillor and Praetors from the Dominion box set with the usual hornless Chaos helmets with Pallador plumes attached. The Knight Vexillor has had the banner removed as I want to do a handpainted paper one without Sigmarite stuff on it. Reduced Model Unit Elite Foot.

Celestial Spear Guardians. These are the Vindictors from the Dominion box set with hornless Chaos helmets. The leader has a Pallador plume attached. Reduced Model Unit Offensive Heavy Foot.

Knights Arcanum. These are the Annihilators from the Dominion box set with Vindictor spears and hornless Chaos helmets, plus the Knight Arcanum and Lord Imperant (plus Gryph Hound) from the Dominion box set. These are unconverted as they look excellent as they are. Reduced Model Unit Heavy Foot with Wizardling. 

The whole lot can create a 36pt war band which is standard size for me. 

Dragon Rampant Warband - The Knights of The Celestial Tower

I've been thinking for a while about a new Dragon Rampant war band, mulling over using Games workshop's Stormcast Eternal range to give me a slightly Excalibur movie 'shining steel' chivalric knights war band, albeit with more fantasy elements and I've finally set about it! 

While I love the ridiculously OTT plate armour of the Stormcasts, I HATE the helmets and the oversized hammers so it was with some trepidation that I began my quest to set this force up. First, I had to locate possible heads. I tried two options - Puppets of War Spartan heads and GW's Chaos Warrior heads (minus the horns). The former were sadly just a little too small for my tastes (although others may well have been happy with them) so Chaos it is!

Also, the Age of Sigmar 'Dominion' box set has just come out and EBAY was full of half-sets from the box set, so I bought the Stormcast bits, then scoured EBAY for other stuff to give me the other units I need. The box contains 10 Vindictor models, all of which are basically armed with spears. It also includes some Praetors armed with halberds, so that was a result. I'd already decided that all units would be single or reduced model units so I only needed 6 Vindictors, so the remaining spears were used to convert other models' weaponry, removing stupid hammers from those who had them. 

I've built the first units and here are the first two. Hopefully the others will be done later today. 

Here are the Celestial Lancers. These are Pallador knights with Vindictor spears and the sword from the Standard bearer from the Dominion box. The horses are from Matt at Mousillon Miniatures via Easy, who resized three of the faux-Bretonnian Calix Knights that he sells to fit my needs and did me a very good deal on them. Excellent 3D prints from a superb company. Matt went above and beyond on this and I recommend him wholeheartedly! The helmets have plumes from the original Pallador set. I'm really pleased with the movement in these models! They can be either Elite or Heavy Riders depending on how many points I have to play with and are a Reduced Model Unit.

Next up are the Celestial Marchwardens. These are GW Farstriders with GW Chaos Marauder heads. I left the horns on these as in my backstory for this war band (which I'll share later), these are barbarian hill-tribesmen from the wooded hill-country on the Northern borderlands who have resisted the lure of The Abyss (Chaos) and have been recruited by The Celestial Tower to guard the Northern border. They are Scouts and are also a Reduced Model Unit. 

More later once I've finished building and photographing! 

Mablung's Bodyguard

Busy time at work and a nasty back injury have resulted in less work on my Elves than I'd have liked, but I have now completed Mablung's bodyguard unit. They'll be Elite Foot in Dragon Rampant. Mablung himself will be worth 3 strength points and each of his guards will be worth 1, so a 4 model unit can equate to full 6 strength points the unit needs. I do this a lot with hero units. I now only have 5 axe-armed Elves to build and the whole Doriath force will be complete and ready for painting...

More Sindar Warriors

Busy evening finishing the building of the last 7 models in the Offensive Heavy Foot unit. Usual mix of stuff. I'm really pleased with these. The unit is going to look immense! 

I need to order a new Roman sprue now as I've run out of heads and need to do 9 more axemen. The archers and Beleg's bodyguard are all GW LoTR range - the former are Lothlorien Archers and the latter are Rangers of the North models. They fit in pretty well actually even though they're a little smaller. I'll take some pics of those once they are painted as most will be unconverted. 

Anyway, here are those sword/spearmen...

Sindar Warriors

Busy evening building and converting more Sindar. The first 5 of a unit of 12 offensive heavy foot. They are the usual mix of Victrix Saxons and Romans plus some Greenstuff and Oathmark Elf helmet plumes. I am a tad concerned about the spears on these... Am debating replacing them with steel ones, but it won't be easy...